Staff at a second-hand bookstore in Badajoz, western Spain, were terrified to discover that one of the books in their collection had had its pages removed and replaced with a complex mechanism that closely resembled a bomb.

The book in question, a copy of “The King of Beggars” by French writer Jean Larteguy attracted the attention of staff at the Hundred Cannons bookstore in the town of Badajoz, due to its unusually hefty weight. Upon opening it to inspect the contents, they were shocked to find that all the pages had been cut out and replaced with a mechanism that included several stopwatches, capacitors, and loads of electrical wires. The first thing that went through their minds was that this was a bomb-book, so they immediately evacuated the place and called the police.